Sunday, May 30, 2010

Some hundred years after its inception, pragmatism has reclaimed centre stage, not just within philosophy, but also within intellectual culture as a whole. This book sets out to explain what it is about pragmatism that makes it such a distinctively attractive prospect to so many thinkers, even in previously hostile traditions. Alan Malachowski sets out in a clear and accessible manner the original guiding thoughts behind the pragmatist approach to philosophy and examines how these thoughts have fared in the hands of those largely responsible for the present revival (Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty). The pragmatism that emerges from this exploration of its “classic” and “new wave” forms is then assessed in terms of both its philosophical potential and its wider cultural contribution.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Dr. Pennington discusses the theories of deliberative democracy, including the work of Jürgen Habermas. He argues from a Hayekian perspective that the case against the social democratic state rests with the superior capacity of markets to extend communicative rationality beyond the realm of verbal discourse. Deliberative democrats privilege discourse above other more successful forms of communication and expression instantiated in free market institutions.

Mark Pennington is Reader in Public Policy and Political Economy at Queen Mary, University of London. Later this year, the lecture will be published in "Critical Review".

Saturday, May 22, 2010

This paper was written for and presented at "Rawlsian Liberalism In Context(s)" conference held at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in February, 2010. In it, the author argues, first, that there is no doctrine of "classical pragmatism" uniting the figures often identified as founding the movement; and, second, that contrmporary pragmatists ignore or dismiss Rawls

Excerpt:

"The Rawlsian aspiration is to devise a practicable yet principled public conception of justice despite our deep disagreements. The strategy is to do political philosophy while holding deep metaphysical questions in suspension. But Rawlsians are not eliminativist; they do not deny that such questions matter or are meaningful. Rather, Rawlsians are quietist, they hold out the hope that we can make significant progress on political justice, freedom, and equality despite the lack of consensus over the ultimate nature of such matters. They aim for a principled politics that can recognize that inquiry into fundamental matters must continue. This Rawlsian project seems to me in line with what is best in the pragmatists: it is an attempt to engage directly with a pressing problem of modern life in a way that takes seriously the complexity and variety of human experience. Rawls is beating the contemporary classical pragmatists at their own game. The longer the pragmatists take in recognizing this, the more irrelevant their views become. And relevance is among the pragmatists’ self-professed criteria of success."

Robert Talisse is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at Vanderbilt University.

Excerpt:"[....] as an introductory text that students use as a supplement to a careful reading of A Theory of Justice itself, it is an excellent book. For Rawls scholars, the book is interesting because of the way in which it critically comments on various received interpretations of A Theory of Justice. It does justice to the two latter parts of A Theory of Justice in a way that few other introductory texts do and is quite helpful in explaining the structure of these less well-read last 400 pages of A Theory of Justice. Last, but not least, Mandle's book is interesting because he couples his anti-luck egalitarian reading of Rawls with his view that Rawls favors property-owning democracy over welfare-state capitalism -- because of how the former better than the latter ensures that citizens can relate to one another as equals. In making this connection, Mandle strikes a chord that is intriguing and very up-to-date in the light of Elizabeth Anderson's and Samuel Scheffler's recent critiques of luck-egalitarianism."

Jon Mandle is Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Albany, SUNY. Jon Mandle's introduction to his book is available here [pdf].

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Excerpt:"Axel Honneth’s recognition-based social and political theory has attracted much attention and for good reason. It offers a clear counterweight to the individualist theories so dominant at present, and it claims to carry forward the emancipatory project of the Frankfurt School by giving it new critical tools. Its key idea is that of mutuality (or reciprocity). Honneth wants to transform the central thesis of Hegel’s Phenomenology – that self-consciousness achieves its satisfaction only in another self-consciousness – and put it to an empirical, post-Hegelian use in a theory of recognition whose conclusion is that each of “us” can successfully be “individuals” only if others are successfully individuals. In that way, he also hopes to show that the concerns of liberal, individualist thinkers who have focused their critical attention on the fairness of the distribution of primary goods (such as, most obviously, Rawls), are expressing concerns that are themselves only intelligible (and in possible need of reform) in the larger socialpsychological context of what is required for fully mutual recognition."

Monday, May 10, 2010

An Ethics for TodayFinding Common Ground Between Philosophy and Religion

by Richard Rorty

Description:

Richard Rorty is famous, maybe even infamous, for his philosophical nonchalance. His groundbreaking work not only rejects all theories of truth but also dismisses modern epistemology and its preoccupation with knowledge and representation. At the same time, the celebrated pragmatist believed moral questions did not have universally valid answers, leading to a complex view of religion rarely expressed in his writings.

In this posthumous publication, Rorty, a strict secularist, finds in the pragmatic thought of John Dewey, John Stuart Mill, Henry James, and George Santayana a political imagination shared by many religious traditions. His intent is not to promote belief over nonbelief, or to blur the distinction between religious and public domains, but to locate patterns of similarity and difference for an ethics of decency and a politics of solidarity. He particularly responds to Pope Benedict XVI and his campaign against postmodern inquiry. Whether holding theologians, metaphysicians, or political ideologues to account, Rorty remains steadfast in his opposition to absolute uniformity and its exploitation of political strength.

Abstract: One of the most powerful but elusive motifs in pragmatist philosophyis the idea that a liberal democracy should be understood as a community of inquirers. This paper offers a critical appraisal of a recent attempt to make sense of this intuition in the context of contemporary political theory, in what may be called pragmatist political liberalism (PPL). Drawing together ideas from Rawlsian political liberalism, epistemic democracy and pragmatism, proponents of PPL argue that the pragmatist conception of inquiry can provide a satisfying interpretation of the idea of justificatory neutrality as it appears in political liberalism. This is contrasted with Dewey’s understanding of the epistemic character of democracy, which is viewed as unacceptably sectarian. This paper identifies and criticizes the two principal lines of argument made in support of PPL: the clarification argument and the fixation argument. Neither of these lines of argument, it is argued, passes the test each sets itself. I argue that the latter closes down the epistemic openness in the justification of democracy that is central to pragmatism.Reply to Festenstein [pdf]Robert B Talisse

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

The concepts and values that underpin traditional constitutionalism are increasingly being challenged by political realities that place substantial power beyond the state. Among the few certainties of a global economy is the growing incongruity between the political (the world of things that need to be ordered collectively in order to sustain society) and the state (the major institution of authoritative political decision-making during modern times). The consequences, and possible remedies, of this double disjunction of politics and state and of state and constitution form the centre of an open debate about 'constitutionalism beyond the state'.

The essays gathered in this collection explore the range of issues raised by this debate. The effects of recent changes on two of the main building blocks of constitutionalism - statehood and democracy - are examined in Parts I and II. Since the movement of overcoming statehood has, arguably, been advanced furthest in the European context, the question of the future of constitutionalist ideas in the framework of the EU provides the key theme of Part III. The remaining parts consider possible transformations or substitutes. The engagement of constitutions with international law offers one line of transmutation of constitutionalism (Part IV) and the diffusion of constitutionalism into separate social spheres provides an alternative way of pursuing constitutionalism in a new key (Part VI). Finally, the ability of the theory of global administrative law (examined in Part V) to offer an alternative account of the potential of jurisdictional control of global governing processes is examined.

Part I: Constitutionalism and the Erosion of Statehood1. Dieter Grimm: The Achievement of Constitutionalism and its Prospects in a Changed World [preview]2. Ulrich K. Preuss: Disconnecting Constitutions from Statehood: Is Global Constitutionalism a Viable Concept?3. Martin Loughlin: What is Constitutionalisation?

Part II: The Question of Europe4. Tanja A. Börzel: European Governance: Governing with or without the State?5. Fritz W. Scharpf: Legitimacy in the Multi-level European Polity6. Sonja Puntscher: Constitutionalism and Representation: European Parliamentarism in the Treaty of Lisbon

Part III: Constitutionalism without Democracy?7. Petra Dobner: More Law, Less Democracy? Democracy and Transnational Constitutionalism8. Marcus Llanque: On Constitutional Membership9. Hauke Brunkhorst: Constitutionalism and Democracy in the World Society

Part IV: Constitutional Law and Public International Law10. Mattias Kumm: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times11. Rainer Wahl: In Defence of 'Constitution'